- Snowchange Cooperative Discussion Papers #1 2011 - Does Siida Life Continue? - Brief Overview of the Land Use and Occupancy and Human Histories of the Indigenous Inari (Aanaar) Sámi Reindeer Herding Community ”Nellimin tokkakunta” 18th August, 2011 Version Tero Mustonen, Ph D Human Geography, University of Eastern Finland / Snowchange Cooperative, Finland [email protected] 1. Introduction Main aim of this paper is to investigate the question preliminarily whether some aspects of the Indigenous Sámi siida community governance survive to modern day. This is achieved by producing a brief overview of aspects of land use and Indigenous histories of the Inari (Aanaar) Sámi reindeer herding community which is now emerging (2011) as ”Nellimin tokkakunta” (loosely translated as Sámi Reindeer-herding Unit of Nellim) which is conducting Sámi-style reindeer herding in the area of Nellim, which belongs to the municipality of Inari in Finland. Previously this community has been a part of the state-instituted Ivalon paliskunta system. The community of Nellim reindeer herders is in a state of conflict with the state reindeer-herding unit and is currently emerging as an “Sámi-style” reindeer herding community. The paper discusses pre-historic and archaeological roots of Inari Sámi and Sámi land use and occupancy in the region, traces aspects of historical land use of the area with a focus on the Sámi and ends with a view regarding contemporary situation of the Nellim Inari Sámi based in preliminary informant interviews from 2011. The scientific view of the paper rests on the methods of human geography, investigation of archival and printed materials, fieldwork in the region in spring and summer 2011, and selected initial interview with the key informants in the region in May 2011. This paper should be seen as an introductory investigation into the aspects of Inari Sámi land use and occupancy in the region. The conclusions and findings are to be taken only as indicative and preliminary regarding the research question. The research here has been conducted as a part of the on-going community-based research initiative of the Snowchange Cooperative in the Finnish Sámi areas, which began in 2000 in the region and continues as a long-term monitoring effort. Much further work, both in terms of expansion of research literature as well as field interviews among the living people is needed for a throughout investigation of the situation in Nellim. The study of the legal aspects of the land use and occupancy in the region forms another important research topic for the future. It is worth noting that such a community- based Indigenous investigation should be carried out at an earliest possible convenience together with the established Sámi institutions and research bodies in the area as many of the older Sámi who remember the semi-nomadic migrations are passing away. Toponyms appear in the short paper as written in the sources and they are not consistent with the contemporary translitteration of the Inari Sámi language. Finnish and Sámi terms have been used to refer to culturally specific concepts such as siida. The paper concludes that while the Inari Sámi-style siidas as Indigenous governance systems have been destroyed in the colonization process by the nation states in the region since 1517, a cultural continuity can be seen in the reindeer-herding systems, place names and family links to the documented seasonal rounds of the Inari Sámi amongst the contemporary populations of Nellim and the surrounding areas. Special focus will be put in this paper on the aspects of the contemporary Sámi reindeer herding community in Nellim. Local systems of subsistence economies can be 1 seen to be in conflict with the state-imposed natural management systems, such as the paliskunta reindeer cooperatives and other land use decisions. Following the UN decision of 2005 to issue a moratorium on all industrial forestry in parts of Nellim it is recommended that a large research and community-based process be initiated to investigate the region and its histories as soon as possible. 2. Pre-Historic Aspects of the Aanaar-Inari Sámi The area of Aanaar-Inari today belongs into the sub-arctic boreal zone and is situated roughly 300 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle. It is located in the Province of Lapland, Finland. The Nellim area, which is located in the eastern part of the municipality of Inari, belongs into the northern boreal forest with pine-dominated trees even though birch and spruce can be found the region too. Temperature is quite harsh, in the winter temperatures can reach down to -40 C and in the summer temperatures are around 20-25 C degrees. Extreme temperatures of -50 C and + 30 C have been known to exist. Climate has been partly in-land continental, even though climate change has been predicted to change the current climatological regime (Arctic Council 2005). It can be categorized as a short-summer snow-dominated climate. Predominant winds are from southwest. The Gulf Stream influences the climate and weather in the region, making it milder compared to other climates in the same latitudes. Climate change may cause additional burdens on the human activities in the region, especially to the vulnerable subsistence economies, such as reindeer herding and ice-fishing (see more in Arctic Council 2005). Luhta (2003: 21) states that the natural conditions in the Aanaar- Inari area formed into contemporary forms around 2000 years ago. Oldest samples of timber (pine) investigations have been dated 7520 years ago. The last Ice Age caused the formation of the current water bodies and geographical features (ibid. 2003: 21). The defining element of the region is the Lake Aanaar-Inari itself, which influences the human histories, and land uses of the area. First human inhabitants reached the region known today as the Province of Lapland in Finland roughly 7370 BC (Carpelan 2003: 31-32). The Sámi know the region as “Sápmi”, land of the Sámis or Sámi homeland. The oldest human occupancy evidence has been dated 8000- 6000 BC from Inari region (Carpelan 2003: 33). These sites are areas of communal dwellings that have been discovered in archaeological digs. Carpelan (2003: 33) claims that the first arriving peoples to the Aanaar-Inari region came from the coast of the Arctic Ocean north of Aanaar-Inari. These peoples can be classified as hunter-gatherer populations. Based on the archaeology (ibid. 2003: 34-35) the Aanaar-Inari region has been settled continuously for the past 8000 years. Majority of this period is the time of hunters and gatherers and their societies. There are many markers from this period but especially the system of hunting pits for wild deer also in the Nellim area are an example of the continued long human history in the region. Other examples include specific arrow heads (Huurre 1985: 26-27), pots and other food utensils. The periods of arrival of different materials have been documented in the archaeological studies of the region. First bronze items for example have been dated roughly 900-700 BC (Carpelan 2003: 53). The link between these pre-historic societies and the contemporary Sámi triggers often heated debates and divides scholarship. It is a matter of political and legal interpretation too. For the purposes of this paper it is enough to state that the contemporary Sámi populations 2 conceptualize themselves as the ”Indigenous” or original inhabitants of the region. This status as Indigenous people of the region matters in the international and national legal debates too. Further investigations should be made utilizing – in a meaningful partnership with the local Sámi – the oral histories of the peoples of the region to shed more light on this question. 3. Aspects of the Historical Land Use and Indigenous Histories In the Area of ”Nellimin tokkakunta” According to for example Carpelan (2003: 71-73) the Sámi societies of the Aanaar-Inari region organised themselves into so-called winter village territories or siidas. Before this method of land use bands of hunters and fishermen would occupy the lands surrounding the Inari Lake and the Nellim area according to their seasonal cycles. There is plenty of scientific scholarship on the questions and models of the winter village siidas so this is not repeated here (see for example Mustonen 2011: 24-25). It is important to note that these siidas were autonomous Indigenous-controlled reindeer herding and hunting societies that existed well into the historical times. The Swedish Crown as well as the Russian State, the two European powers influencing the Nellim and Aanaar-Inari regions in the historical times, both recognized these forms of Indigenous governance in the early historical times in the region (see more in Mustonen 2011: 79). The first historical reference to Inari or Aanaar was made in 1517 (Lehtola et al. 2003: VII). In those times the region would be influenced by six ethnic societies, the North Sámi, Skolt Sámi to the east, Russians, Swedes/Norwegians (Scandinavian peoples), Finns and the “local” Sámi, the Inari Sámi peoples. The first farmer arrived in the region in 1758 (Carpelan 2003: 36) and he was ethnically a Finn. Carpelan (2003: 72) quotes Itkonen who indicates that there existed at least 11 siidas around Aanaar-Inari lake system in early historical times. Kitti (1984: 69), a Sámi scholar discussing the issue indicates that there used to be 15 siidas around Inari region. Inari Sámi language and culture are specific and on their own in the family of surviving Sámi languages and areas. In some aspects these siidas can be linked with family land use and territories in the contemporary times. However the original siida system was destroyed through the colonial acts of the Swedish, Russian and Finnish nation states.